Star Trek: Swiftfire 05: Moral Actions
by The Sisko
Summary: While creating a diversion for a Federation task force on a mission in Cardassian space, Lieutenant Commander Nikki Whitechapel and Lieutenant Terri Letac are separated from the task force and take refuge in a Federation colony in hiding from the Dominin
1. Prologue

**STAR TREK: SWIFTFIRE**

**_Moral Actions  
_**

(Season 1: Episode 5)

* * *

_Captain's personal log. It has been a dark time for the Federation and me. We are losing ships every day and all we seem to do is engage and retreat, though with the debacle at Guyra Starfleet is more into retreating then engaging. But this isn't what concerns me. It has taken me over three weeks to build up the courage to speak about what happened there. Three weeks ago I watched as the ship my father was commanding took the brunt of an orbital bombardment to save the last remaining colonists on Guyra III. I watched as its shields gave way under the onslaught. I watched as it descended into the planet's atmosphere, fire leaping out of dozens of breaches in its hull. I watched as my ship's tractor beam lance out and failed to keep a hold of the falling ship. I watched as the ship disappeared into the smoke, out of sight. I watched the fear in my tactical officer's face as I turned and blamed her for failing, for killing my father. I watched the stunned Bridge crew as I blamed everyone but myself. I watched the compassion in Maxine's eyes as she explained to me what had happened, how my father disbursed the tractor beam to stop me from making a mistake. How it was not Lt. Commander Whitechapel's fault, how Commander Core saved the ship by leaving the planet. I watched as the tears started to fall down my face and then I could watch no more. It was hard for me to face everyone after that. Like always Susan put a spin on it commenting that at least the crew now knew I wasn't an unfeeling robot but a human being…who was borderline psychotic. But now I must do something much harder, something I've put off time and again. I'm calling home._

* * *

Captain Jonathan Masters sat nervously at his desk in his Ready Room. It was fairly late but he was still there. He switched on his computer terminal and accessed the Subspace Communication network. A soft faced Bolian Lieutenant appeared on the screen.

"_Good morning, Captain Masters. How can I direct your communication?"_

"I wish to make a private call to my mother at my home on Earth."

Jonathan didn't need to say anymore. The Lieutenant would pull up the details on where to transmit the signal. The Lieutenant would also check to make sure Jonathan was authorised to make the call.

"_Everything is in order, Captain. Your transmission will be patched through momentarily. I do remind you that your transmission will be monitored and that you are to keep the details on the war to a minimum. You will receive a visual warning if you are breaking any of the codes of the Frontline Communications Act. But we will not hesitate to cut the transmission if we see fit and an investigation may be initiated. Do you understand, sir?"_

"Yes, Lieutenant. I understand."

"_Very well. Have a pleasant day, Captain."_

The Bolian disappeared as was replaced with a sign that showed that the communication was been transmitted. Jonathan looked away as he waited. He wasn't sure what he would say to his mother. She would have been notified of his father's death but that didn't make things any easier.

The computer beeped as it finally connected. Jonathan turned to face the screen and nearly had a heart attack when he saw who was at the other end.

"Father, you're…you're alive."


	2. Chapter 1

Susan stepped into the main lounge and saw Ensign Frank Cole sitting by himself. He was mindlessly twirling the contents of his glass around. Susan went to the replicators and got herself a drink and headed over to Frank.

"On your own, Ensign?" said Susan as she took a seat.

Frank looked up with a startled expression on his face.

"Oh, hi Commander. Yeah, I'm on my own. Karak is doing some sort of Vulcan mediation ritual and Terri is with Nikki working on the sensors. Something to do with it the targeting sensors clashing with something and creating a blind spot, which means we are firing the Phasers but not targeting anything."

"Leaving you on your own."

"I never realised how much time I spent with those two. I don't think I've even not been with one of them."

"Don't you hang out with anyone else?"

Frank shook his head.

"Not really. Though Dutch and Jigger have taken me under their wing."

"Who?"

"The two Marine's who gave me the nickname, "Jim". For some reason they consider me a lucky charm or something."

"Oh, yes. One big and one small. Always together and always joking."

"They're the ones. I think they want to make me a Marine."

"You would make a cute Marine."

"Thanks a lot, Commander," said Frank sarcastically.

"I'm a bit surprised about the friendship you have with Karak. Most Vulcans I've met who are as old as he is tend to keep to themselves rather then hang around with a group of non-Vulcans when they aren't on duty."

"I know what you mean. I asked him why he does hang with us, we are a lot younger then him and much more emotional. He says that since we work together we should get to know each other well to cement a bond and create a more efficient working relationship. But personally I think he enjoys our company. But don't tell him I told you that!"

Susan laughed, "Tell a Vulcan that he has emotions! I can think of less painful ways to die."

Frank smiled.

"How do you do it, Commander?"

Susan looked perplexed.

"How do you get to be liked by everyone?"

Susan shrugged.

"I don't know that everyone likes me. But all you have to do is be yourself."

"And if that doesn't work?"

"If they can't like you for who you are then they are not worth being friends with, why do you ask?"

Frank looked a little embarrassed.

"Let me guess, you have yourself a little crush! Come on who is it?"  
Frank looked around to make sure no one was ease dropping and lent in.

"Ensign Bailey."

"As in Autumn Bailey? The young girl who normally mans the helm station during the late watch?"

"Not so loud! Yes, her. Problem is I want to get to know her better but with our schedules I only see her every now and then."

"Well, we're going to be spending around a week here at Starbase 391. You don't need to be at the helm all the time, I'm sure I can get you to man the science station one night. There will be just you, her, a person on the tactical station, someone at ops and someone in charge. Things are pretty laid back at that time, plus since we're orbiting the starbase there won't be any surprises to complicate things. You should have a good chance to get to know her."

"You'll do that for me?" asked Frank surprised.

"Of course I will! It's not the first time I've done this."

Frank lent back in his seat and smiled broadly.

Frank restarted the conversation. "So how's the Captain?"

A look of concern came to Susan's face. She was the Captain's closest friends and he had been very distant to her for the last few weeks, which worried her.

"He is still a bit shell shocked. He is embarrassed and ashamed of the way he acted. I have never seen him like he was on the bridge when he left Guyra. He really, really lost it. Despite what he said, he felt that he failed to save his father. Despite what he has now seen to show that he couldn't save his father, he still feels he should have done more."

Frank nodded. He could only imagine what it would feel like to lose a parent. He looked up and spotted Lt. Commander Pavlo Celcho walking into the lounge. He waved and Pavlo came over.

Susan turned and offered him a seat.

"It's good to see you! I thought they were never going to let you out," said Susan.

"It's good to be back," said Pavlo. "They just wanted to make sure my arm was okay. It took longer then they thought it would. But it was lucky they decided to evacuate the injured and most of the civilians from the Starbase before the battle. I see the ship held together without me."

Pavlo sat down with the two officers.

"Lieutenant Dyson was able to keep things running in you absence," said Susan. She put out her hand. "Can I see your arm?"

Pavlo rolled up his sleeve and showed off his arm to the Commander. Susan delicately felt his arm.

"Any scarring?" asked Frank.

"Scarring? Of course not!" said Pavlo, sounding disgusted. "This is the 24th century not the Dark Ages!"

"So what does it feel like?" asked Frank.

"An arm," said Susan.

"Right," agreed Pavlo. "Physically there is no difference. It's like I never lost my arm. Can I have it back now?"

"Sure," said Susan.

Pavlo rolled his sleeves down.

"I heard a lot of interesting things when I was laid up, reports of missing ships, retreats, loss of important Starfleet officers, that kind of thing. But one of the more interesting things I heard was that the USS_ Enterprise_-E was going to be making an appearance in this sector soon."

"The _Enterprise_!" said Frank excitedly. "As in Captain Picard, Commander Riker, Data, Worf, Dr Crusher and Troi? That _Enterprise_?"

"The very same."

"Except Worf," said Susan. "He moved to Deep Space 9 back during the Klingons invasion of Cardassia. Word is that he is working with the Klingons now that the Dominion is in control of Deep Space 9."

"Oh, really? I didn't know that. I just always associate Worf with the _Enterprise_. Still it's the _Enterprise_! I've got to find my holorecorder so I can take a recording of it. My parents would love to have a live recording of the _Enterprise_," continued Frank like an excited child.

"So why is it coming here?" asked Susan.

"I don't know. Special orders from Command or maybe just boosting moral. With the _Enterprise_ it could be anything."

"So what else did you hear when you were on holiday while we were working our arses off?"

"Well," Pavlo paused as he looked around to make sure no one was listening. "I shouldn't repeat this but…"

* * *

"_So that's the story. I was transferred back to Earth for rest and relaxation two weeks ago."_

"That's amazing!" said Jonathan.

Jonathan couldn't believe it but his father had survived and was now telling him the story of his rescue.

"_It is, isn't it?"_ continued Jonathan's father, Admiral Dalton Masters. _ "It's just unfortunate they couldn't save anyone else. We only had a few thrusters still working before we crashed but it was never going to be enough. The impact compacted the bottom decks. The engineering hull was destroyed and the saucer section filled with water. I was the only one alive when the Starfleet rescue team found us." _ Dalton shook his head as he repeated this to Jonathan, by the look on his face Jonathan could tell that he felt guilty for surviving. _"I'm going to have words with Command. I've been out of hospital for two weeks, they should have contacted you." _ Dalton paused and turned away.

"_It's Jonathan," _said Dalton to someone off screen. _"Yes, of course."_

Dalton turned back to Jonathan.

"_Your mother wants to talk to you. Well, it's good to see you're well. I'll talk to you later."_

Jonathan said his goodbyes and his mother, Claire Masters, sat down in front of the monitor. She was an aging woman, with shoulder length grey hair. Unlike his father she was Caucasian and had fair skin and before it went grey she had blonde hair.

"_I have a bone to pick with you young man!" _Claire shook her finger at Jonathan angrily.

"What?"

"_You haven't called me since this war begun. I've been really worried about you. You are to call me once a week from now on, okay? Good. So how are you?"_

Jonathan smiled broadly, "I'm well."

"_What about Susan? I haven't seen her in ages."_

"She's the same."

"_That bad, eh? I must say you're looking very well. I swear you get younger every time I see you."_

"That's because I am. Thanks to a subspace anomaly. But…"

"_It's a long, classified story, right?"_

"How did you know?"

"_Isn't it always?"_

"I guess it is. You remember Carol Murphy? She had twenty years taken off her."

"_Really? That's fantastic. Lucky Doctor Murphy. I'm sure I'll get the whole story from Dalton. So where are my grandchildren? When are you going to get married?"_

"When I find the right woman, mum. I can't believe you're still pestering me about this."

"_I'm not getting any younger, Jono. What about…Maxine, is it?"_

Jonathan fidgeted uncomfortably.

"I see father told you about that. She's a nice woman."

"_Uh oh! I think I sense a "but" coming."_

"But we're at war," finished Jonathan.

"_Love doesn't just stop happening because of war, son."_

"I guess."

"_You don't sound too confident. Is something wrong?"_ asked Claire concerned.

"No, it's just. Don't worry. So how are things?"

Claire knew her son well enough to tell when he wouldn't continue to answer questions about the previous topic.

"_Good. Everyone is a bit nervous, even here on Earth! The Federation News Service isn't painting a pretty picture of the war. Everyday there is a report of a loss of a ship or news of a fleet retreating. Then there's the Saturday edition that has a list of the casualties. It doesn't help moral to keep seeing more and more names on that list. Even though we have the 3__rd__ and 9__th__ fleets protecting Earth everyone is on edge. But other then that it's life as usual. I'm doing the lecture circuit again, so much for my retirement!"_

"I knew that you wouldn't be able to last too long without something to do. It's…" Jonathan paused as his computer notified that he had an incoming message. "I've got a message, could you just hold a minute, mum?"

"_Of course."_

Jonathan put the transmission on hold and brought up the new transmission. A Starfleet Commander appeared on his screen.

"_Captain, you are to report to the Starbase conference room 4 in ten minutes."_

"For what?" asked Jonathan.

"_I can't say, sir. Just be there. Starbase 391, out."_

Jonathan signed. He didn't think much of all this cloak and dagger business. He brought back his transmission home.

"I'm sorry mum but we're going to have to cut this short."

"_New orders?"_

"We're at war," said Jonathan sounding a bit annoyed. "I'll call next week, at the same time if possible. It was nice talking to you and dad, bye."

"_Bye and good luck."_


	3. Chapter 2

"You really had nothing better to do, do you?" said Susan in disgust. "That is disgusting."

"I know," said Pavlo. "But apparently it's true."

"I find that hard to believe," said Frank. "For one thing, its illegal, disgusting, and he's a high profile diplomat. I think you were taken for a fool. No offence, Lt. Commander."

There was a ruckus around the three officers. Crewmembers around them were all moving towards the windows in the room.

Susan, Pavlo and Frank looked at each other to see if either one knew what was going on, but no one did. So they went over to see what the big deal was all about.

"What's going on?" Susan asked a Chief Petty officer.

"It's the _Enterprise_. One of the sensor officers on the Bridge detected it entering the area."

Susan looked back at Pavlo who gave her an "I told you so" look.

"So where is it?"

"I don't know. That is why we're looking for it."

It took around a minute before someone spotted the distinctive shape of a _Sovereign_ class starship.

"It is the _Enterprise_!" said Frank excitedly.

"Yep. By the looks of things it looks like we're going to pass close to her," said Susan.

"Really? Can you stay here, Commander? I'm just going to run off and grab my holorecorder. I'll be back soon."

Frank ran out of the room.

Susan shook her head at Frank's behaviour. Well, if the _Enterprise_'s mission was just to raise moral, it was working very, very well. She looked back at Pavlo who still had a stupid smile on his face. Susan rolled her eyes.

Pavlo lent forward and said, "I love being right."

* * *

Admiral Harvey stood up and walked around his desk as he went to shake the hand of his guest.

"Captain Picard. It is good to meet you."

"And you, Admiral. I hope you recovered well from your injures at Guyra?"

"I have thanks, my injuries were just minor. A lot of good people died on that day." He said mournfully. He was indeed more of the more fortunate ones of the battle. His Klingon counterpart, General G'tor, had not been as lucky. His ship had been destroyed during the battle, from the reports it was a heroic last stand by the Klingon. Outnumbered he had fought to hold off the Dominion from attacking the ships aiding in the evacuation of the Guyra IV moonbase, which were vulnerable with their shields down to allow for beaming. Disabled G'tor then blew up his ship destroying or damaging several enemy vessels, or at least that was the story. Harvey wasn't sure if the final act was premeditated or if the ship just exploded due to damage. In the end that didn't matter, G'tor had died trying to save the lives of his allies and Harvey was not going to sully his name now.

He pushed those thoughts out of his mind. "In battle there is always a certain amount of luck involved, unfortunately for us it was all bad. So what brings you to my section of the war?"

"Starfleet Command has entrusted me with a special mission and I wish to borrow some of your assets to complete it."

"Intriguing. Continue Captain and know that I'll be only happy to help as long as it allows us to get some revenge for what the Dominion did to us at Guyra."

When Jonathan arrived at the conference room on the Starbase there were already six beings there, four Starfleet and two Klingons. Several minutes later the number of beings doubled as more officers arrived, this included Admiral Harvey and Captain Picard of the USS _Enterprise_. Once they had made sure everyone was present, Picard started to briefing.

"As you know the war isn't going well for the Federation or the Klingons. In an effort to try and hold the Dominion we have fallen back several light-years to a more stable position. But Command has learned some disturbing news. The Cardassians are shipping a large metagenic and biogenic weapons cache to a forward base in one of the systems we abandoned. We believe they are planning to strike at our border worlds with these weapons and even to use them on abandoned worlds so to make sure they are empty and to make them useless to us. We cannot allow this to happen. Command has tasked me with the mission to destroy the convoy, which we have named BW-593, on route. To do this I need a small task force, namely you," said the Captain of the _Enterprise_.

"A small force? Wouldn't it be better if we sent a full tactical wing or two? This convoy is bound to be heavily guarded," said an Andorian captain.

"Our information leads us to believe it will not be heavily guarded. They are far behind enemy lines and a large force would get our attention, which they don't want since this is meant to be a secret convoy."

"We can't just waltz up to this convoy and attack it," said Jonathan. "If it is far behind enemy lines the Dominion will detect us an soon as we cross the border and attack us."

"We are not going to be doing that. We are instead going to be jumping around Cardassian space, hitting small targets to keep the Dominion guessing. The attack will not be out in the open. It will be crossing close to this pulsar. The pulsar will hide us until we strike plus it will block any communication from the convoy to the Dominion. By the time anyone notices it's gone we'll be half way back to Earth."

"What's the timetable for this attack?" asked a humanoid Captain.

"The convoy will be in position in six days. We will leave in three. I will be giving each ship's commanding officer the plan of attack personally. Let's just get one thing straight right now; those weapons are a risk to the entire Alpha Quadrant. The sooner we destroy them, the safer we will all be."

* * *

Jonathan stepped out of the turbolifts into one on the most famous Bridges in Starfleet, the Bridge of the USS _Enterprise_-E. He looked around and saw the faces of Starfleet's most famous officers, Commander Riker, Lt. Commander Data and Counsellor Troi.

Commander Riker stood and motioned for Jonathan towards a door near the front of the Bridge.

"The Captain is waiting for you in his ready room, Captain Masters."

"Thank you, Commander Riker."

Jonathan walked through the door and into the Ready Room. Captain Picard was behind his desk reading. Once he saw Jonathan enter he stood and strode over to Jonathan and shook his hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. Admiral Harvey spoke very highly of you and your crew, Captain Masters."

Picard motioned Jonathan to the seat opposite his desk.

"They are a good crew, Captain. We've only been together for a few months but they have glued together nicely."

As both officers sat Picard continue to speak.

"I see Nikki Whitechapel is your tactical officer. She served for a while on the _Enterprise-D_."

"Did you know her on the _Enterprise_?" asked Jonathan.

"Not very well. I met her a few times. Good officer with a lot of promise. It's good that they transferred her from the _Enterprise_, with officers like Worf she would have had a hard time getting any further then Security officer."

"She is certainly a good officer, Captain."

"Yes. Well, I didn't invite you here to chat about crew; you're here to get the attack plan." Picard handed over a datapadd. "This has all the information on it, but I'll give you a brief overview."

Picard stood and moved to a large viewscreen on the wall. It displayed a two-dimensional interpretation of space, namely Federation and Cardassian-Dominion space.

"Tomorrow when we launch we'll first be heading here." Picard pointed out a spot on the map, which highlighted. "Where a small Dominion subspace relay is located. We'll hit it and then move here."

Picard went through and named the targets in the order they would hit them. As he moved on to the new target a line would connect it to the previous target. Jonathan saw that they would be jumping all over the place. After naming around a half dozen targets Picard came to the end. Jonathan listened and at the same time read the padd had had been given.

"The convoy is a civilian convoy?" he asked as he read more details.

"Yes, that's part of the reason it is undefended."

"This convoy has supplies for worlds that were heavily hit by the Klingons before the war."

Picard nodded. "That's why the Cardassians are using it to transport weapons, it is going near the frontlines already and would be under little suspicion."

"There are no military ships in this convoy and it is crewed by civilians. This isn't a military target."

"The transport of weapons make it a viable military target. They are using civilians to shield their weapons and discourage attacks."

"Captain Picard...I don't know how to put this but..."

"You are uncomfortable with attacking a non-military target."

"As any right minded person would. How sure are we that this convoy has weapons?"

"The Intelligence reports I have seen are very compelling, Captain Masters. I would not undertake this mission if I didn't believe it was a legitimate target. Before we attack we will scan the convoy to find which ships are transporting the weapons."

"Couldn't we just hit the base where they are storing these weapons?" he asked.

"We aren't sure exactly which base they are going to or even if they are all going to one single location. The best chance we have of destroying these weapons is to attack the convoy before it reaches any of the planets on its route. These are extremely dangerous weapons and the loss of civilian life is regrettable but we aren't the ones using civilians as shields. There are no moral ambiguities with this action, Captain. Those weapons must not be deployed. If you cannot deal with this I need to know now."

Jonathan considered his options for a second, but he knew he only had one answer. "I can handle this mission, Captain."

"Excellent. I personally chose the ships to take part in this mission as being the ships with the crew that have the training, skill and the belief to undertake such a dangerous mission. I know you and your crew will not let the Federation down."

"Thank you, Captain. Shall we continue with the briefing?"

"Of course. This is where we'll end up, Pulsar XC-230A. We'll arrive around 8 standard hours before the convoy is due to pass through the area. Just in case they are early. Once we destroy the convoy we'll hightail it straight back over the border to Federation territory. This means we'll be open targets for the 34 hours."

"That's a bit risky. The Dominion will know where we're running too. They'll have plenty of time to set up a blockade."

"We have that covered. Admiral Harvey will draw enough forces away from our path that we won't get trapped behind enemy lines. You better have a good look at the details on your padd before I answer any more questions. Any concerns you have will be answered, Captain. We aren't going on this mission half-cocked."

Jonathan stood up to leave and put out his hand. Picard took his hand and shook it.

"With a ship named _Enterprise_," stated Jonathan. "How can we fail?"


	4. Chapter 3

Doctor Carol Murphy looked at the results of the scan on her Medical Tricorder.

"It's just bruising. You'll be fine."

Carol took out a device and ran it over the bruising, causing it to disappear instantly.

Carol sighed to herself. Ever since her regression she has had a substantial increase in patients. Either it was becoming more dangerous to be a crewmember on the _Swiftfire_ or people were just coming to see her. The fact the other medical officers on duty had only a small increase led her to think the latter. Not that it was too surprising; she did lose 20 years and looked much fitter and firmer. But it had been close to two months since the incident! People should have got over it in a week or two.

"There you go. Good as new," said Carol as she finished.

The young Lieutenant stood up and nodded, "Thanks, Doc." Then left.

"They're still doing that?" asked Terri who had appeared sometime ago.

"Seems so," said Carol sounding agitated. "I think I've dealt with all 463 male crew members in the last two mouths, twice. So what can I help you with, Terri?"

"Nothing. This is just a social call. Susan, Nikki, Maxine and I are going to the holodeck together tonight. We were just wondering if you would like to come."

"What program are you running?"

"Medieval."

"Great so we're going to be maidens in distress?"

"Not exactly. Susan likes it better if we go rescue men. Kind of a role reversal."

"In that case, I'm in! What time?"

"1900 in holodeck 4."

There was the sound of a door opening and Terri and Carol turned to see who it was. A young male Andorian Lieutenant entered. He looked around until he saw Carol and headed over.

"You public awaits, Doctor. I'll leave you and the Lieutenant alone," said Terri. She winked as she ended her sentence.

"If you get trapped by a dragon tonight on the holodeck, don't come crying to me, Lieutenant," Carol said angrily.

Terri just laughed as she left.

* * *

Frank did another sensor scan. It was the late shift and he was slowly getting use to the science station. Just like Commander Core had said, it was pretty laid back. The only people on duty were three Ensigns and a Lieutenant.

"So is it always just four people on the Bridge?" asked Frank.

"What?" said the Lieutenant as he looked up from the Datapadd he was reading. "Oh. Not always. When we're on patrol we have a full crew. But it's usually like this. Not as exciting as your normal shift. Plus if we get into trouble I notify the senior officers."

"Oh."

The Lieutenant smiled to himself. The Commander had briefed him on the situation. So far Frank was bored and he hadn't got the chance to really talk with Ensign Bailey, who was manning the Helm station. The Lieutenant looked up at Ensign Bailey. He could see what Frank saw in her. She was rather attractive. At the moment her jet-black hair was in a tight bun and she looked very professional. She had nice light olive skin and beautiful green eyes. The Lieutenant would have asked her out for himself but she wasn't his type. It was her nose. It wasn't huge or crooked it was just…pointy. But Ensign Cole liked her and the Commander had offered him a very nice deal if he assisted Frank.

"Ensign Bailey," said the Lieutenant.

The Ensign swivelled in her chair to face the Lieutenant.

"Yes, sir?"

"I want you to assist Ensign Cole in realigning the sensor array."

"Sir?" said Ensign Bailey.

"He's a bit new to the science station, whereas you are not. Help him. Don't worry; I'll have the computer take over flying us in a circle for a while."

The Ensign nodded and stood. When she got to the Science station Frank spoke, "Thanks."

"It's okay. I was getting bored with flying us around in a circle anyway. First I want you to run a diagnostic of the sensor array."

Frank started to run the diagnostic.

"So why are you on duty now?" asked Ensign Bailey.

"I wanted to broaden my horizons."

"Okay. Is that done?"

"Yes."

"Okay, calibrate the frequency modulator."

As Frank was calibrating he decided to keep their off duty talk.

"So you're a helm officer too?"

"Sort of. I'm mainly science, but I did go through the helm course as well. I see that you went through Command. You must be very good to get into Command at the academy and you must have done equally well to get a position as one of the ship's main helm officers. Finish last year?"

"Yes. You?"

"Year before. I was on the USS_ Veracruz_."

The two Ensigns continued to converse until they had realigned the sensors.

"There you go. That wasn't too bad for your first time."

"Thanks. I had a lot of help."

"So what are you doing after you finish duty?" asked Ensign Bailey innocently.

"Sleeping. This is my second shift today and I've got a break before I go back to my normal schedule."

"Oh, okay. Well, I better be getting back to helm and make sure the computer isn't sending us into a blackhole."

Frank watched as the Ensign walked back to her station. He couldn't help feeling he missed an opportunity.

"Great work, Ensign," came a voice behind Frank.

Frank nearly jumped out of his skin. He turned to see the Lieutenant.

"You just had a perfect chance to get to know Ensign Bailey a bit better and you choked."

"Choked?"

"She wanted you to ask her out, that is why she asked what you were up to. Now quickly go and finish off the kill."

The Lieutenant practically pushed Frank towards Ensign Bailey.

"Ah, Ensign Bailey."

Ensign Bailey turned to face Frank.

"I've had a change of plans. Would you like to go to the ice lounge and have a drink or meal or something?"

"I'd love to, Ensign Cole."

Frank nearly jumped for joy.

"Really? Great! I'll see you there."

Frank turned and started to head back to his station. The Lieutenant gave him a little nod of congratulations.

"See you there, Jim."

Frank paused mid step and saw all the other officers trying to hide their laughter. No matter what he did, that name would always come back to haunt him.

* * *

Jonathan stepped onto the Bridge and immediately felt something was wrong. Jonathan slowly scanned the room. When he got to the Helm station he saw that Ensign Cole wasn't there, instead it was Ensign Malic, a Trill. Jonathan slowly wandered up to Commander Core who was sitting at her seat fiddling with her armrest controls.

"Where's Ensign Cole?" asked Jonathan.

"He's not on this shift. I gave him a late shift because he wanted to get experience at a station other then helm."

"Oh," said Jonathan.

Jonathan wondered if this was a good or bad sign. It either meant Ensign Cole was looking to make himself a more useful person when on duty or he was bored with the Helm and wanted to change to something else.

"Captain, we're getting a transmission from the _Enterprise_ to form at the outer marker," reported Lieutenant Letac.

"Send back an acknowledgement to the _Enterprise_. Helm, take us out to the outer marker."

The _Swiftfire_ joined with the other ship in the group, thirteen in all, including three Klingon vessels.

The group didn't have to wait long until they set out. As they moved out the Klingon ships cloaked, becoming invisible to the naked eye and to sensors. The ships suddenly disappeared with a flash of light as they entered warp.


	5. Chapter 4

Lieutenant Terri Letac placed the chip back into the board. She then slid out of the tight confines of the small Jefferies tube.

"That should do it," she said to the other person in the small Bridge.

"The Computer disagrees with you, Lieutenant," said Lt. Commander Nikki Whitechapel. "It says if we fire the burst from the Scoutship's deflector dish the ship will explode."

Terri let out a quiet Bajoran curse. Despite been Bajoran she didn't know much of the language, in fact all she could really do was curse in Bajoran.

Nikki smiled slightly showing that she might know a bit of Bajoran too. The two officers were working inside the small _Venture_ class scoutship, _SC-193_.

"Don't worry, Terri. We have a lot more time until we arrive at the Larkin system."

The _Swiftfire_ and the other ships in the task force were now heading to the Larkin system after striking several Dominion and Cardassian positions.

Terri got back into the Jeffery's tube and shouted so that Nikki could hear her.

"I don't see why we have to do this. The _Enterprise_ has Lt. Commander Data and La Forge, why aren't they doing this?"

"Everyone needs to do their bit for this mission to succeed. We have to trick the Dominion into thinking that we have ships and personnel on the colony Nathan's Gap. Plus we're the only ship with a scoutship."

"I don't think that using the Deflector dish on a scoutship to produce fake ion trails and warp signatures on and around the planet is going to fool the Dominion," shouted Terri as she messed around with the ship's circuitry in the Jefferies tube.

"It just needs to buy us time to get away. The Dominion will have to check out the readings just to make sure we really aren't there and that will take time, time we'll use to attack another Dominion facility."

"Try it now!" shouted Terri. "But what about the scoutship's ion trail and the warp signatures of the other ships, the Dominion will detect them."

"It didn't work. Try swapping Isolinear chip 12A with 4C. Well, the rest of the ships will be in the asteroid belt of the system, which will mask their warp trail when they jump and the Scoutship is designed to leave a minimal amount of ions. It is designed to scout around and not attract attention or leave much evidence of it been there. We'll be okay."

"I still think we should have been given a duty we're more use to, like bombarding enemy ships. What about now?"

"We'll get to blow up enemy ships when we attack the convoy, but we have to get there first without been found out and this is just part of that plan. Got it! It's working, Lieutenant."

Terri crawled back out.

"See, that wasn't too bad," said Nikki.

"I still don't like it. So who is going to be leaving the trail of crumbs for the Dominion?"

"I'll be flying the ship but I'll have someone to back me up."

"What a great job!" said Terri sarcastically. "So who is the unfortunate being who gets that job?" Nikki turned and looked at Terri. Terri just stood there waiting until it dawned on her. "No! Why me?"

"You set the deflector up, so if anything goes wrong you'll know what to do. Don't worry it will be fun!"

Nikki opened the hatch and started to leave the shuttle.

"Don't worry. We have the _Enterprise_ on this mission. What can go wrong?" said Nikki as she left, leaving Terri on her own in the Scoutship.

"What can go wrong with the _Enterprise_?" mumbled Terri as she exited the shuttle. "They've only been through 5 other ships before this one."

* * *

Commander Riker sat down next to Captain Picard on the Bridge and looked at the viewscreen, which showed several asteroids in the foreground and a sun in the background.

"Has the _Swiftfire_ launched the scoutship?" he asked.

"Yes, around twenty minutes ago. It should be in orbit of Nathan's Gap soon," replied Picard.

"I've never heard of the Larkin system or the colony Nathan's Gap," commented Riker.

"The system was first explored in the 2330s as part of Starfleet's general exploration of this area of space," started Commander Data. "In 2342, 231 colonists from Mars moved to Larkin III, the only M Class planet in the system. They formed the colony Nathan's Gap. It expanded to over 6,000 colonists quickly because it was thought that a major space lane would be established close by but it never came to be. By 2358 the population dropped down to just over 500. Several mineral teams from the Federation have gone and found that the planet had around 30 substances that could be exported to other worlds. But nothing has come of that."

Riker nodded. He had heard similar stories from various worlds throughout the Federation.

"This information sounds fairly old, Data. Do you have any more up-to-date information?"

"No information exists between just before the Cardassian War and the start of the Dominion war. But a week after the start of the Dominion war the Dominion came through this sector. A week after that Starfleet sent a ship to check what had happened; they found the planet had been heavily bombarded from space."

"Didn't Starfleet Command try to evacuate the planet beforehand?" asked a shocked Riker.

"I asked Starfleet Command that very question," joined in Picard. "They told me that the Dominion attack in this sector came as a surprise. The colonists never sent a distress call, so the Starfleet forces did not come. They believe the Dominion snuck around the Starfleet assets in the area and destroyed the colony right at the start of the assault."

"Sounds like a poor excuse for a lack of action," stated Riker. "How many colonists were there?"

"Starfleet has listed 731 missing, presumed dead at Nathan's Gap," said Data.

"Over 700 civilians," said Riker as he shook his head. "Slaughtered because Starfleet forgot about them."

"Captain, we're getting a coded transmission from the IKS_ N'Vark_. Then have picked up a Cardassian force heading our way," said Data.

"How does that affect our plan?" asked Picard.

"We have to leave earlier then planned," explained Data. "Or the Cardassians will be able to detect our warp signatures when they arrive, despite the effects of the asteroid field. The computer says we should leave in twelve minutes, I agree with this conclusion."

"Signal all the ships to prepare to leave in two minutes," ordered Picard.

"What about the _Swiftfire_'s Scoutship, Captain?" asked Data. "They do not have the time to return to the _Swiftfire_ and they don't have the speed to keep up with us when we go to warp."

"What do you suggest, Number One?"

Riker thought for a few seconds.

"Either they make a run for Federation space or they should go to ground at Larkin III. If they make a run for it they will have to go through the hornet's nest we have stirred up, but if they stay we have to return to pick them up or they'll be trapped behind enemy lines. Neither option is very good."

"My thoughts exactly," said Picard. "Data, signal the _Swiftfire_ and order Captain Masters to tell his ship to go to ground or to make a run for it. It is his crew and ship, he should make the decision."

* * *

"We've getting a priority message from the _Swiftfire_," reported Terri. "They have to leave because the Dominion is heading in. The Captain wants us to go to ground and wait until they return to pick us up."

"They're leaving?"

"No, actually they have left. The transmission was sent just before the task force jumped to warp."

"Great. Okay, hold on I'll take us into the atmosphere," said Nikki as she piloted the craft. "Scan for a place to put this ship down."

"Sensors are having trouble with all the radiation down there to find anything. I think we should head to grid 325-G. It looks like it took the heaviest bombardment; we should find it easier to find a cave or something to hide in."

Nikki piloted the Scoutship and put it into a course to take it to the coordinates Terri had specified. Just as they were about to enter the atmosphere an object appeared ahead of them and set off several klaxons.

"Object decloaking," shouted Terri over the alarms as she read the information the sensor were giving her and trying to turn off all the alarms. "Starboard bow."

Nikki looked out to see a green, boxy object ahead of them.

"Is it Klingon?"

"Negative, Romulan in design."

Nikki was about to ask what the Romulans were doing in this system when even more alarms went off.

"They're charging weapons."

Nikki tried to put the ship into evasive manoeuvres but the object was too close and raked the vessel with disruptor fire.

"Shield at 23%! Warp drive is offline, impulse, thrusters, weapons, communications, do you want me to continue?" asked Terri darkly.

"I get the idea. What was that?"

"It was some sort of weapons satellite. I don't know what a Romulan weapons platform is doing in this system but it wasn't meant to destroy us."

"What do you mean?" asked Nikki as she struggled with piloting the Scoutship.

"It was at point blank range, it should have destroyed us. But instead it hit us with a very specific pattern to disable us."

"I feel so much better now I know it wasn't trying to kill us outright," said Nikki sarcastically. "Can you get any systems back online?"

"Sure, it will take a few minutes."

"We don't have a few minutes. I say we have under a minute until be become another crater on this planet. Can we beamout?"

"To where? This planet is a radioactive wasteland, we'd last a couple of minutes then we'd be dead. Plus transporters are down."

"As much as it pains me to say this, you were right. We should have got someone from the _Enterprise_ to do this," joked Nikki as she watched the ground get closer and closer.

Suddenly the viewports danced with a light blue light and the ship started to level out and slow down.

"Is that a tractor beam?" asked Terri.

"It looks like it."

Nikki looked to where it was coming from and saw nothing but an empty crater. The tractor beam kept dragging them down until then reached the bottom of the crater and passed through it! Once through they saw a totally opposite view from before. There was a city.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" asked Nikki.

"Green grass, a city, people and animals? Yes."

"But this planet was a radioactive, dead wasteland."

"I thought so too."

The tractor beam guided the scoutship to a large landing pad where several other ships were. On the pad were five humans. The Scoutship came to rest by the group. The group was made up of one woman in civilian clothes and four people in a military uniform armed with disruptor rifles. They stood and waited until Nikki and Terri opened and scoutship's doors and stepped out.

"Welcome the Nathan's Gap," said the woman with outstretched arms. "I am the elected leader, Minister Madeline Octago. You may lower your arms, you are welcome here."

"Then why the troops?" asked Nikki.

"A precaution, they are here to guard me, not capture you. If you will come this way?"

The Minister walked towards a nearby hovercar. Nikki and Terri followed her, with two guards behind them. The other two guards remained with the scoutship. She motioned for them to board the vehicle.

"Where are we going?" asked Terri.

"To your accommodation. You will freshen up and rest and then I will give you a tour of the colony."

"How did you survive?" asked Terri. "I thought the Dominion levelled this planet."

"There will be enough time for questions later. Don't worry; all the answers you seek will be available to you."

The hovercar pulled up to a tall building. A man, who looked like a porter, came and opened the door and let Nikki and Terri out.

"I'll be back in a few hours," said the Minister as Nikki and Terri left.

Nikki nodded and followed the porter. Terri was having trouble keeping up, not because of the pace but because she stopped every few metres to look at something. They got into a large, mirrored lift, which took them up 15 floors. The porter took them to their room.

The room they were given was huge, especially compared to their quarters on the _Swiftfire_. The porter pointed out where everything was and then left, promising to be back when the Minister returned. The first thing they did when the porter left was move onto the room's large balcony.

They had a view of a large part of the city.

"It's a beautiful city," said Terri. "It looks very touristy. I'm surprised I never heard of it."

"It's one of those colony built to take advantage of a new spacelane. But the spacelane never came to be and that was twenty odd years ago. I'm surprised it still looks like a city of thousands, not the city of hundreds it really is. Most colonies like this would quickly degrade into a shadow of its former self and turn into a haven for mercenaries, pirates and other low life. But they've managed to keep this place as it was."

Terri looked up into the sky.

"We must be in an environmental dome," commented Terri. "They put a lot of effort into keeping this place like this."

"It would have taken a lot of resources. If they could do this, why didn't they escape? Or call Starfleet instead of letting us think they had been slaughtered."

"I don't know. I'm going to lie down for a while. I feel really tired."

"Me too," said Nikki. "I don't know why. I got a fair bit of sleep before."

The two Starfleet officers went inside. Terri wandered into one of the rooms and Nikki sat down on one of the lounges.

It bothered her that she felt so tired. She wanted to go and check out the area and see what she could find out before they met the Minister again, but she had hours to do it. She could rest her eyes for a few minutes.


	6. Chapter 5

A loud knock on the door woke Nikki up with a jolt. It took a while for her to remember where she was. She quickly got up and answered the door. The porter was back. Nikki thought that he must have forgotten to tell them something since they had only been in the room a few minutes.

"Yes?"

"The Minister is here," said the Porter.

Nikki looked confused.

"I thought we had a few hours?"

"You did, ma'am. It's been over two hours."

"Two hours!" said Nikki shocked. She had only meant to sleep for a few minutes. "I'm sorry. I was asleep. I'll go grab my friend and we'll be with you right away."

Nikki rushed into one of the bedrooms and shook Terri to wake her up.

"What?" said Terri sleepily.

"We have a meeting with the Minister."

"Has it been a few hours already?"

"Apparently it has. The porter is waiting for us at the door."

Terri got up and straightened her uniform and followed Nikki out of the room. The two were soon down in the lobby. The porter took them to a waiting hovercar. But when they got in there was a complete stranger in the vehicle.

"Hello, Lt. Commander Whitechapel and Lieutenant Letac. It is a pleasure to meet you both," said the lady.

"Have we met?" asked Nikki.

"Yes and no. I'm Minister Madeline Octago." Nikki and Terri looked at each other confused. "The woman you met before was not me. It was a precaution until we knew who you really were."

Terri and Nikki still didn't look to sure of what was going on.

"We took a sample of your DNA when you shook hands with the fake minister and checked it against the records we have of Starfleet personnel. Then in the lift of your hotel we gassed you so that you would go to sleep in the room. Then we did a detailed scan of you and swept you with polaron radiation to make sure you weren't Changelings."

"You did all of that just to get our identification?"

"When you are in hiding it pays to be careful. I know you have more questions, but just hold them for now. The tour will tell you most of what you want to know."

The car came to rest and the door opened. The three women were then escorted into a large building that looked a lot like a large armoured bunker.

Once inside the Minister started the tour. "Welcome to the colony's operation centre. From here we control everything, power, the shields, the holographic generators, everything," said the Minister as she pointed to various manned consoles.  
"Holographic generators? So that's how you hid yourselves. You have hologenerators producing images of what the land should look like," said Terri.

"That's right, Lieutenant. The holographic generators keep us hidden from the naked eye and most sensor scans. The radiation has also made it just about impossible to detect anything on the planet, so it has just added to our safety. When the Dominion attacked we already had some warning. So when they bombarded they were hitting the holograms of our city. It appeared as if the city was levelled, but it was all just an illusion."

"If you control everything then why did you fire on us?" asked Nikki.

"I am very sorry about that," apologised the Minister. "But we don't control the orbital defence satellites. They are independent so that it can't be linked with our hidden city. They are designed to attack any ship that comes too close. It disables them so they crash on the surface. That way it just disappears into the wasteland instead of getting stuck in orbit. It was meant to stop ships from landing and getting a look under the holographic generators."

"This is some very advanced systems, how did you get them all? I didn't think this colony was very rich."

"Before the Cardassian War we were struggling, we had the spacelane that never eventuated that really ripped the heart out of the colony. After that we had mineral teams come and they found we had many items that are valuable to other planets, they set it up but the Cardassian war scared away investors, so again thanks to Starfleet and the Federation we were left in the lurch. So we did it ourselves and we traded on our own. We traded for defences and weapons because we knew Starfleet would not assign forces to guard a strategically worthless planet like ours. We hired mercenaries to trains our forces, to teach us to use the technology. Eventually Starfleet and the Federation forgot about us. It took them two weeks to even notice that we might be all dead. What did they do? They sent a small scoutship into the system to do a scan and run."

"So the Dominion attacked in the first week of the war?"

"Yes. But we were prepared. All the Dominion did was to destroy a holographic city and poison most of the planet. We were prepared so we survived."

"That's amazing. You must be using very advanced holographic technology. Where did you get it from? I don't think even Starfleet has something like this," asked Terri.

Before the Minister could answer Nikki interrupted. "Why didn't you evacuate? Move into a safe system. The Federation has several refugee points where you could go and wait until the fighting is over."

"And leave our homes? No."

"So you didn't evacuate anyone?" asked Nikki. "Not the children or the elderly?"  
"Why would we send the young and the old away from their homes and families?"

"So they'd be safe! It sounds like you have a nice setup but nothing is perfect. The Dominion are most likely going to find out about this and come back to finish the job."

"Why would they come back? This place in worthless. All it was worth to them was to make it a dead rock."

"Oh my god!" said Terri. "The Dominion is coming and we've left them a trail right to this planet."

"Why would you do that?" asked the Minister.

"We're on a mission to destroy a Cardassian convoy and we are using this system as a distraction to give the task force time to do its work. We didn't just stumble into the system."

"Don't worry. Our plan fooled them before, it will do so again."

"But they will be doing a specific search, what if they land troops to search?"

"The radiation will kill them."

"I wouldn't be too sure when it comes to the Jem'Hadar," said Nikki.

"We will not be found out. Perhaps you should return to your rooms for the time been."

Terri and Nikki were escorted back to their suite. Once back in their suite Terri fell into one of the comfy chairs.

"I can't believe we've led the Dominion straight here. If we only knew that they had survived," said Terri.

"We wouldn't be in this situation if they had done the right thing and escaped to a safe world," snapped Nikki. "It is foolish to stay on this world."

Terri fidgeted around as she got comfortable.

"This world is isolated. The chances of the Dominion coming back here and finding them are very small."

"If they don't find them this time," said Nikki as she paced.

"Do you think they'll find this settlement?" asked Terri nervously.

"No. I don't think we left enough of a trail to make them land forces on the planet. Plus this setup with the hologenerators is good, but it is not perfect. It just takes one hiccup, a power interruption or an atmospheric disturbance that interferes with the holograms and the Dominion will level this colony to the ground. They survived the Dominion's first attack, they shouldn't tempt fate."

"Like you said their setup is good. When we were in their Operation's centre I got a brief look at some of their systems and controls. They appear to have a good backup system and precautions to deal with several occurrences."

"But the longer then stay here alone, the chances of something going wrong increases substantially. Also you can't prepare for everything. If they stay they're signing their own death warrant."

Terri knew that she wouldn't be able to get Nikki to change her mind, plus she had some good points. But she didn't want to keep talking about it, so she changed the subject.

"Did you catch up with anyone on the _Enterprise_?" she asked Nikki.

Nikki seemed surprised by the change of subject and stopped pacing. She looked at Terri with a confused look on her face.

"What?"

"The _Enterprise_. You used to serve on it, didn't you? Did you catch up with any old friends?"

"No," said Nikki. She calmed down as she thought back to her time one of the most famous ship in Starfleet. A slight smile came to her face as she took a seat. "I made some very good friends in my five years on the _Enterprise_. We did some amazing things on the _Enterprise_ and saw a lot of strange things. The sad thing is a lot of my friends have died over the years. The _Enterprise_ seems to chew up its security officers at a fast rate." Nikki paused. A look of sadness came to her face as she remembered the friends who had died. "I haven't spoken to most of them since the _Enterprise_-D was destroyed. It's been two years, where does the time go? Do you keep in touch with your old crew on the USS_ Honshu_?"  
"I try to send them a message every week just to see if they are okay and let them know I'm fine. It's easy to lose track of old friends, I don't want that to happen."

"Good friends are hard to find," said Nikki repeating an old adage. "Do you think the Dominion is here yet?"

"It depends. For the task force to leave without us the Dominion must have been only a few hours away. If they're not here now they soon will be."


	7. Chapter 6

Not too far from Nikki and Terri's suite Minister Madeline Octago closely watched the data flowing into the Operations Centre's computers.

"Do you have a positive identification of the objects yet?" she asked one of the Operations Centre's personnel.

"Not yet, Minister. They are still too far out."

The Minister nodded. The colony had a very advanced sensor system set up to detect incoming vessels. The only problem was for it to be undetected it had to be very strict with transmissions and scans and this meant they had a reduced radius and level of detail in the scan.

The Minister remembered purchasing the sensor system. Because they couldn't go through normal Federation trading routes for a lot of the things they needed for the colony they had to go through other means. They had purchased the sensor system from a large Para-military group, the Brotherhood of Man. The group was a very xenophobic organisation who believed that all non-human species were inferior and were out to destroy the genetic "purity" of the human race. Most governments of the Alpha and Beta Quadrant listed the group as an unlawful group so they had to hide and rely on stealth. They had originally created this system to give their hidden bases warning of approaching forces giving them time to escape or prepare. The complex system was relatively cheap. It cost some latinum but the main thing they wanted was several plants, which had a rather nasty compound that could be used to make a particularly devastating biological agent. The Federation would have never traded such an item with a group like the Brotherhood, but Nathan's Gap was less fussy mainly because they had little choice. This wasn't the only example of this type of trading, it happened all too often, but the Minister tried not to think about it.

"Minister we have a positive identification of the objects," reported one of the personnel. "Eight Cardassian vessels are slowly coming in system. Three _Galor_ class cruisers and five _Hideki_ class patrol ships are coming in."

The Minister let out a tight smile.

"Cardassians. At least they are better then the Dominion. They don't have sensors as advanced as Dominion vessels and they don't have the Dominion's work ethic. At their speed how long will it take for them to reach orbit."

"They are travelling very slowly. They are obviously nervous of the Federation ambushing them. They won't be in orbit until around 0400."

The Minister checked a clock. It was 6:32 PM so they had around twelve hours until the Cardassians arrived.

The Minister turned to the senior officer in the room.

"I'll be returning to my residence, if the situation changes you can reach me there."

The officer acknowledged the order with a quick, sharp nod.

The Minister walked out of the centre to her waiting vehicle. Her driver opened the door for her and she entered telling the driver to take her home.

As she was driven home she decided to invite the two Starfleet officers to dinner at her home. They were alone and it would be only polite plus she could also catch up on news from the rest of the Quadrant.

* * *

Nikki and Terri stepped out of the vehicle that had been sent to pick them up and looked at the home of the Minister. To their surprise it wasn't that large, especially compared to some of the other residences located close by. But like a lot of important people the house had large grounds surrounded by a wall. Both Starfleet officers wore Starfleet dress uniform, which they had replicated in their suite. Neither officer was surprised when they got the call that they were invited to dine with the Minister, in fact they expected it so they had spent most of the afternoon setting the room's replicators to make the Starfleet dress uniform.

A guard escorted the two women into the house. The interior of the house was very modest. No grand sculptures or chandeliers made of rare gems. It had a few touches of opulence but nothing too overt. The guard led them into a large dinning room where the Minister and several other people were seated talking around a table. The Minister rose and greeted them.

"Welcome Lt. Commander Whitechapel and Lieutenant Letac to my home. Have a seat."

The Minister motioned to two places at the table next to her, which were opposite each other. The two Starfleet officers sat down. Once they were seated the Minister introduced the other people at the table.

"I'd like to introduce the head of the armed forces of Nathan's Gap, General Hunter Gerardo," she said pointing to a middle aged man with a distinctive moustache. "This is my chief advisor, Chase Veles." An aging man with very white hair nodded at the two officers. "And this is our chief technician, Michael Campbell." A very young looking man waved at them.

"We were just discussing your vessel. We haven't seen anything like it in Starfleet before. Is it a very new vessel?" asked the Minister.

"It's a relatively new craft. It's still spreading out into the fleet."

"Is it a runabout?" asked the General.

"No. It's a scoutship."

"I thought as much," said the young looking technician. "It has a very efficient impulse and warp drives. The ion distributors are very impressive. I suspect it doesn't leave much of a trail."

"Sounds like you had a good look at our vessel. How long until it is repaired?"

"A few days. We're going to have to jury-rig some of the systems with parts from different vessels, which is what will take up most of the time," explained Campbell.

"You have to cannibalise one of your vessels?" asked Nikki.

"No. We have a lot of spares. When you go into isolation you need to make sure you have enough supplies."

Nikki looked at the General and said, "So you have starships. Do you plan to evacuate the planet?"

"We don't have those kinds of starships. We mostly have small vessels, like assault shuttles and interceptors."

"They won't last long against a Dominion assault."

"They'll last long enough."

Terri could sense what Nikki was going to say next and quickly intervened.

"Have the Dominion arrived yet?"

"Yes and no," said the Minister. "The Cardassians have entered the system but won't be here until morning. Ah, our meals have arrived."

Several waiters entered the room and placed meals in front of each person. It appeared to be a type of fish with several types of vegetables.

The Minister invited them to eat.

The rest of the meal was eaten with a lot of light conversation about various topics from the food to clothing. Once they finished the meal they retired to another room and sat on large lounges as they had after dinner drinks. It was here that finally the question the two Starfleet officers were waiting for came.

"Are things really as bad as the news services have made out?" asked Chase, the chief advisor.

"Depends on what the news services say," stated Nikki.

"We only catch a few transmissions from the old subspace network that serviced this area and most of them have stated constant retreats and loses," said the General.

"Then it is," said Terri before Nikki could stop her. "It could be worse. I don't know since I don't read most of the news."

"What about your experiences?" asked the Technician. "Are the Dominion just that more advanced then us that we can't stop them."

"Most of our experiences would be classified," said Nikki harshly. "But the technological gap isn't that big. It is more to do with numbers and bad luck."

"What fleet are you assigned with?" asked the General.

"The Fifth fleet," said Nikki.

"Were you at Guyra when the Dominion drove the Fifth out?"

"How do you how about Guyra?"

"The news services, like I said before. They said we lost around a hundred ships, the Starbase and the colony there."

Terri looked at Nikki to see how much they should say about the battle since Starfleet had given orders out to be tight lipped about it.

Nikki finally spoke.

"We were there. Your losses are a bit high, but not by that much."

"So what happened?" asked the Advisor. "The news services said that the Dominion managed to out manoeuvre two fleets."

Nikki opened her mouth to speak and paused. How was she going to explain what happened when she didn't really know herself?

"It was confusing. Our ship was stationed at a secondary position we didn't see a lot of the battle because of our placing."

The Advisor and the General nodded.

The door to the room opened and a young male child came in. The child looked around at everyone and then settled his eyes on the Minister. The Minister motioned the child in.

"This is my son, Jacob," she explained to the Starfleet officers. "What are you doing up, Jacob?"

Jacob walked up to the Minister and got onto her knee.

"I couldn't sleep. Too many lights were on."

The Minister smiled apologetically at her son.

"I'm sorry. I was just entertaining some guests. You remember the General and Michael don't you?"

The young boy nodded.

"This is Lt. Commander Nikki Whitechapel and Lieutenant Terri Letac," said the Minister pointing to each officer in turn. "They're having ship problems and are staying for a few days."

The boy looked each officer over.

"They have funny uniforms on."

"They're with Starfleet."

"Starfleet? Are they the ones who forgot about us?"

"Yes," said the Minister plainly.

"Oh. They look nicer then I thought they would. Do they fly in spaceships?"

"Why don't you ask them?"

Jacob looked reluctant to talk to either officer but he finally asked.

"Do you fly in a spaceship?"

"Yes," said Nikki. "We both serve on the same ship, the USS _Swiftfire_."

"Did it crash on the planet?"

"No. We were in a small Scoutship on a mission when we had some trouble and your mother was kind enough to give us some help."

"Is your spaceship big?"

"Yes, it's around 500 metres long. It has a crew of 700."

"Do you get to fight baddies?"

"Yes. In fact our ship has gone to stop some baddies right now."

"Cool. I want to be the captain of a spaceship when I grow up. So I can stop the Cardassians from attacking people."

"Come on, young man. All captains need to be in bed now. Come along."

Jacob complained as he was forced towards the door. When he reached the door he turned.

"Lt. Commander," Jacob called.

Nikki looked over at Jacob as he saluted her. She saluted back and he laughed and scurried off to bed.

When the Minister came back they continued to talk for another hour. Nikki continued to question what the colonist had done during their conversations. Terri tried her best to keep Nikki from getting into arguments with the colonists but it was very hard. Finally the Minister called it a night and they returned to their suite.


	8. Chapter 7

The next day Nikki and Terri went for a walk around the small city. Everyone they ran into regraded from suspiciously since they had no faith in Starfleet. But other then that the city seemed to run like any other colony in the Federation. They didn't seem to notice that they were prisoners of the city and they at any moment the Dominion could attack and destroy the city. Another thing was they didn't seem at all worried. Nikki and Terri had been on a few worlds close to the frontlines before and each world had a feeling of impending doom about it. But this wasn't true to Nathan's Gap. They seemed to not take any notice of the danger they were in.

After a while they came to a park, a familiar voice called out to them.

"Lt. Commander! Lieutenant!"

Both turned to see little Jacob running towards them. When he got close he saluted them. Nikki and Terri saluted back.

"You know you don't have to salute us. We don't do that in Starfleet."

Jacob looked a bit sad over the news.

"Oh. So what do I do?"

"Nothing. All you have to do is call us and we'll respond," said Terri. "So what are you up to, Jacob?"

"I'm just here with some friends playing ball. Do you want to join in?"

"No, it's okay. We're just taking a look around your city. It's a very beautiful place."

"Yeah. It looked very dirty before I was born. But my mum fixed it all up," he paused as if he wanted to ask a question.

"Do you want to ask us something?" asked Nikki.

"Yes, but my mum told me not too."

"It's probably best that you…"

"Go ahead, Jacob," interrupted Nikki.

Jacob still looked uneasy as he spoke.

"Why did you forget us? My mum said you left us at the mercy of the Cardassians and the Dominion."

Nikki was taken back by the question and it took a few seconds for her to regain her composure.

"The Federation is very large. There are many worlds like this one. It's hard for us to keep track of all of them," said Nikki. She words felt hollow as she knew it was a poor excuse. "We don't have the resources to protect very planet in the Federation and unfortunately little colonies like this get left out so that we can protect planets like Earth, Vulcan and Tellar."

"But that's not fair."

Nikki struggled from saying, _Well life isn't fair._ Jacob was young and was naïve to the ways of the galaxy.

"No it isn't," said Nikki. Jacob still didn't look satisfied with her response, so she changed the subject. "You said last night you wanted to fight the Cardassians, why?"

"Because they're the ones who want to kill us," answered Jacob simply. "Have you fought the Cardassians?"

"Several times."

"Really!" said Jacob excited. "Can you tell me about some of the battles?"

"Okay, if you want to hear them."

"Great!" jumped Jacob with excitement. "Can I go get my friends? They'll want to listen too!"

Nikki nodded and Jacob ran off to where his friends were playing. Nikki felt Terri staring at her so he looked at her friend.

"Do you think that was the best thing to do?" asked Terri.

"What do you mean?" answered Nikki innocently.

"Telling them war stories. They already have a deep distrust of the Cardassians and you'll only be adding to it. Starfleet is meant to spread tolerance not hatred."

"The kids are right. If history has taught us one thing it is that you can't trust the Cardassians."

* * *

For several hours Nikki told stories to Jacob and his friends. Terri mostly sat and watched but from time to time Nikki would get Terri to join in. Terri recognised several of Nikki's stories and she noticed that she was been very one sided. She was basically giving the kids all the good things about Starfleet with none of the bad. The kid eventually realised they had to leave and they did. Once they left a self satisfied look came to Nikki's face.

Terri's eyes narrowed as she viewed Nikki suspiciously.

"What are you up to?"

"Nothing, why?"

"You look like you're up to something."

"I'm not. Stop been so suspicious," complained Nikki as she stood and stretched from sitting down for so long. "Let's get going. The landing pad is not far; let's go see how our ship is."

That night the two officers were again invited to the Minister's home for dinner. They had learned that the Cardassians had been reinforced by Dominion ships during the day. But late in the afternoon the ships had quickly left the system. The Minister told them they intercepted a message about an attack on a Cardassian convoy close to a pulsar. Nikki and Terri told the Minister that it was most likely their task force attacking its target. With this news all three women were in good moods and the dinner went without incident.

While there Nikki managed to set up a time for her to tell more stories to Jacob. So for the next two days Nikki regularly entertained Jacob and his friends with stories. Then one morning they received a coded subspace message from the _Swiftfire_, which simply said, "2100 hours."

Because of the time difference between ship time and the planet's time this meant that they would have to leave the planet around 4 am in the morning. Everything was ready for them to leave. Their ship had been repaired the day before and was ready to fly.

The two officers were currently just wrapping up one of Nikki's "story times". As the kids got up to leave Nikki turned the Terri.

"How many people would you say the scoutship can hold?"

"Other than us not many. But if it was a short trip and comfort wasn't too important maybe twelve more people."

Nikki quickly turned and rushed after Jacob. She caught him and told him something. Terri couldn't hear what Nikki was saying but she managed to read Nikki's lips for part of the conversation. Jacob nodded up at Nikki and ran off. Terri stormed up to Nikki.

"Did you do what I think you did?" asked Terri accusingly.

"Depends on what that is."

"Did you just tell Jacob to get some friends and meet us at the scoutship tonight?"

"Yes," said Nikki bluntly.

"You can't do that, Nikki! That's kidnapping!"

"It's saving them, Lieutenant. I'm in charge of this mission," Nikki growled at Terri.

"What mission? Our mission was to set a diversion for the Dominion and it worked."

"I'm changing the parameters. Our mission is to save as many people as we can and when you can't save everyone you take children first."

Terri jabbed a finger at Nikki.

"You can't do this."

"Wrong. We can do this. Look Terri, if we don't save these few we'll be guaranteeing that everyone on this planet will die. We have a moral obligation to save as many people as we can."

Terri looked into Nikki's eyes and saw that she was serious about this course of action. Also she saw the compassion deep in Nikki's eyes. Terri couldn't deny the fact that staying on this planet was most likely suicide and Nikki's last statement swayed her.

Nikki could see this and pressed on.

"I need you, Terri. I can't do this without you."

Terri finally succumbed.

"Okay. What do we have to do?"

Nikki smiled and laid out the plan for Terri.


	9. Chapter 8

Nikki and Terri got up two hours before their scheduled meeting time with the _Swiftfire_ and gathered their belongings and left. They used the lift and went to the bottom floor and walked out. The city was deserted. It was too early for anyone to be out and they knew they wouldn't run into anyone. The colony didn't have roaming security forces because there was no crime, no unwanted element that liked to use the cover of darkness to cause trouble. Terri had also dealt with any security monitoring devices by setting her tricorder to shut these devices off as they got close to them. The landing pad was a fair walk and it took them nearly forty minutes to reach the landing pad. Like everything else on the planet it had no guards or walls to stop people. In fact the only guards they had seen were inside the Operation centre and the ones that followed the Minister.

Terri opened the hatch for the scoutship and entered. She started to run diagnostics of all the systems while Nikki did a pre-flight, which took twenty minutes. Then they waited for Jacob and his friends to arrive, if they did.

And they did. Nikki had told them to come twenty minutes before the meeting time but the kids were too excited and arrived thirty minutes early.

Jacob ran up to Nikki who stood just outside the entry hatch.

"Hi, Lt. Commander," whispered the boy excitedly.

"Hi, Jacob. I see you have your friends like I asked."

Jacob nodded proudly.

Nikki turned to them all.

"You all ready for a ride into space!"

The kids cheered.

"Okay, everyone onboard. Lieutenant Letac is onboard. If you're quick she might let you sit in the pilot's seat."

All twelve kids ran into the ship excitedly. Nikki laughed at their innocent excitement and wondered when flying in space had lost its innocence for her. She was about to got onboard when she heard the sound of transporters.

"I can't let you take the children," came the voice of the Minister from behind Nikki.

Nikki slowly turned to see the Minister alone.

"I don't think you can stop us," said Nikki.

"I could have had my guards come and force you to give up the children but I will not need them. You will return to children to me."

Nikki didn't react to the minister's question.

"How did you know we were leaving?"

"We may live on a far off world but we are not stupid."

"Staying here is stupid," argued Nikki. "The Dominion will be back and when they find you they will kill everyone. They don't care if you're a civilian, a woman or a child. To them all solids are fair game."

"_If_ they find us," countered the Minister.

"The Dominion is relentless. We've got them interesting in this planet. Once they are interesting in this place they'll return and it will only be a matter of time."

"I disagree. The Dominion will now think that this was all a distraction to give your task force a chance to destroy the convoy. They will not return."

Nikki stepped forward and raised her voice, "What if you're wrong? It will cost you everything. The colony and everyone here will be destroyed. Better to be safe then sorry. Evacuate. The _Swiftfire_ can hold over 4,000 people if it needs to. We can take everyone on this world and a fair bit of luggage. We can get you to safety!"

"We're safe here."

"No you're not!" shouted Nikki. "You're in hiding because you are not safe. You can go somewhere where you don't have to hide, where you'll be truly safe."

"Only until the Dominion reaches there and we have to flee."

"We won't let the Dominion…"

"You'll try to stop them, there is a difference. Can you guarantee that the Dominion will not reach us? That they won't make us run for the rest of our lives?" asked the Minister in the same calm tone she had used for the entire conversation.

Nikki hesitated as she went to answer the Minister's questions and released that there was only one true answer.

"No, I can't guarantee it," caved in Nikki.

"Good. If you said yes I would think you take me for a fool. If we run now, we'll be running for the rest of our lives. Now tell me, what kind of life is that?"

"At least you'll have one to lead," responded Nikki angrily.

"But we already do, can't you see that? We're happy. You've seen us. Nobody thinks of war and death, all we think about is life and that is what it is all about. Did humanity flee Earth when the Borg came? No. They stood and fought."

"Not every human did."

"True, but we don't force people to stay. They choose too. We have been here from the beginning, we toiled, we bled, we gave all we had to build this and keep it. Many have come and gone but we will never leave. If the Dominion comes, we will fight and if necessary we'll die for this planet."

"But do the children have to die?" pleaded Nikki.

"Would it be better to send them away? Break up families and communities? Have children grow up with no parents or past?"

"It would be better then letting them die."

"Have you ever considered that you are wrong? That you can't be judge and jury of our actions? What gives you the right? There is an old saying, '_let he who is without sin'…_"

"'_Cast the first stone_.' I've read the bible."

"Do you understand what it means? Do not judge us unless you have judged yourself. We have made a choice that our freedom allows us to do. Are you willing to take them from us, like the Dominion wants to do to the entire Quadrant?"

Nikki wanted to argue with the Minister but all the words that came to mind seemed hollow and meaningless. She had fought for freedom, freedom for people, for planets and for the quadrant. With this single act she would throw it all away and make what she did before pointless.

"So will you take our freedom away with our children, Lt. Commander?" asked the Minister.

Nikki silently turned and walked to the shuttle's hatch and opened it. She looked up at Terri how stood close to the door. Terri knew what to do and turned to the kids.

"Alright kids, we've had a change of plan. There will be no flight today." The children moaned as they heard the news. "The Minister is outside and will take you all home. It was great having you onboard."

The children filed out sadly. Jacob ran up to his mum.

"Mum, we were going to go in a ride in the spaceship!"  
"I know. But the Lt. Commander and the Lieutenant have to go back to their big ship."

"Can I go with them?"

"They're going away. Far away and they'll be gone for a long time."

Jacob understood the meaning and looked sorrowful and turned to Nikki.

"You'll never come back will you?" asked Jacob.

"Never say never. I have a lot to do. You just remember to work hard and one day you'll be a captain of a spaceship."

"If I do, can I visit you?" asked the excited young boy.

"You can count on it."

Nikki looked up at the Minister who smiled back.

"Are you going to tell Starfleet about us?"

"No. You made your choice, whether I like it or not."

Nikki turned and went into the shuttle. Terri had already powered up all the systems and the ship was just waiting for the pilot to tell it to move. Nikki fell into the pilot's seat and inputted the commands. As the ship slow rose she looked out to see Jacob, the other kids and even the Minister waving them goodbye. She waved back and took the ship into the air.

The scoutship shot into the air leaving behind the colony to disappeared from sight.

Nikki took the scoutship and put it in a low orbit so to mask the ship from the sensors of any other ships. They had around twenty minutes until the _Swiftfire_ arrived so they waited. Nikki just sat immersed in thought. Terri on the other hand was not sitting still. She seemed to be doing a hundred things at once.

"These repairs are good but not great. I'm glad we don't have to go to warp otherwise we'd blow up!"

Nikki just nodded not really listening to anything Terri said.

"We didn't see anything."

"Pardon?" said Terri.

"We hid in a crater. That is all that happened. I want you to delete all sensor recording, visual recordings, logs, everything that showed what was down there," ordered Nikki.

"Yes, sir. You're doing the right thing, Nikki."

Nikki looked down at the planet.

"I hope so, Terri. For their sake more then mine."


	10. Epilogue

Nikki entered Captain Masters' ready room. The Captain was seated at his desk at the far side of the room. Nikki quickly walked up to in front of his desk.

"Lt. Commander, we have a lot to thank you for," started the Captain. "Your work delayed the Dominion and Cardassian forces for long enough that it allowed us to successfully complete our mission. Captain Jean Luc Picard has also sent his thanks to you and the Lieutenant."

"Just doing my duty, sir," said Nikki.

"I also would like to clear up some…minor details."

Nikki tensed up at the Captain's last sentence.

"The ship didn't record much of what happened we suspect it was because of the damage you received from the weapons platform. We would have come to rescue you straight away but we left right after we sent you your orders. We also saw that you received heavy damage and they several systems were repaired with foreign items."

"We must have come down near a ship crash site or an old spaceport. We were able to find scraps all over the place and we repaired the ship."

"I see. We also found that the computer was switched off. Without the computer you would have had no shields or life support. How did you survive?"

"We were in EV suits. That plus the ships hull shielded us from most of the radiation."

"Yes, it would have. Just one last question, were there any survivors."

Nikki considered what she was about to say. She was about to lie to a superior officer and most likely condemn the colonists of Nathan's Gap to death.

"No. No one survived."

The Captain seemed to consider her words. A silence filled the room as Jonathan just looked up at Nikki.

"Very well. You can go, Lt. Commander."

Nikki turned and started to walk away when the Captain called her back so she turned to face him.

"Oh, Lt. Commander. Good work."

Nikki nodded and smiled before she turned and left.

* * *

Captain Masters watched as Nikki left before pulling out a small device. This device was a voice recorder from the scoutship. It was a backup that held copies of everything said on the ship and around it as Jonathan had learnt.

The recorder had captured the Lt. Commander's last conversation with an unknown individual several minutes before the _Swiftfire_ picked them up. The conversation was very interesting and went some way to describing the Lt. Commander's unease since coming back from the mission. It was the only piece of evidence of what happened on the planet.

Jonathan had no real reason to call Nikki about her report; he just wanted to see if she would tell him the truth. She hadn't. In one way he was pleased as it showed her to be true to her word but it disappointed him that she hadn't trust him enough to tell him. Hopefully one day that would change.

Jonathan regraded the device and its implications for a while. Then he picked up one of the datapadds on his desk and clipped the recorder to it. Jonathan then pressed a button on the datapadd. The recorder surged with energy for a few seconds and then smoke seeped out of it. Jonathan then pressed another button asking the datapadd to read the device, but all he got back was a message saying that the device was unreadable. Jonathan disconnected the still hot device and looked at it one last time. Then Jonathan threw it into the rubbish.


End file.
